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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Potato Onions and Turmeric

Firstly, they bare easy to grow. Stick them in the ground in July and they grow. Each stem is another onion. So from one you get 4 or 5.

Secondly, they keep forever. We are still using onions from our July 2012 planting and the July 2013 plantings are nearly ready for harvest.

Thirdly, they are very strong onions not a wimpy no crying variety.

Our Turmeric has finally sprouted shoots after sitting in the ground for weeks. We were getting worried that they may have rotted.

Two shoots up

We use a lot of Turmeric as it has many healthy properties. In the past we would use powdered Turmeric in many dishes. We started to grow it a few years ago and love the totally different flavour that fresh grated Turmeric imparts on a dish. Usually we only plant one pot but this year we have doubled our plantings as it is such a favourite.

Slowly but surely we are planting out the melons. Everything has been a bit slow to germinate this year. A combination of some old seed and the cooler nights. The chicken wire guards around the small plants in our unprotected top of the hill bed is working and the plants that had been nibbled are recovering. Cucumbers are on stream now and the first Zucchini was eaten last night.

We have a surplus of cow manure and today decided to put some in the chicken pen with the silage rather than have one side silage and one side manure. Throwing in some freshly mown grass clippings each morning has encouraged the girls to do a lot of scratching in the pen before they are let out rather than their usual behaviour of standing at one end waiting for release.

The weather is a nuisance as usual. Today was very cool. Jean was wandering about with a coat on late morning.

It looks as if we may have a bad year in the orchard. The bats have been hammering various trees. Anything with paper exclusion bags doesn't stop them. And although the cotton bags provide a better barrier they still manage to do a lot of damage. We ran out of bags today when adding a few more to the three Pear trees. The heirloom cider apples are almost ready to bag and a rush order to Green Harvest will be needed tonight.

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About Me

We live on a small acreage. What soil is present is not great but over the years we have established an orchard and vegetable gardens. What is great are the views over our valley. Apart from growing almost all our fruits and vegetables we also make wine, cheese and many other things. We love food and the process of getting it to the table but we also realise that life requires an holistic approach. An holistic view includes paying attention to our impact on the environment, our health and wellbeing. Frugal living does not accurately describe our life as it conjures up images of misery and meanness. We enjoy the best of food, wine and entertainment with a wonderful collection of animals and some people. We're not spenders: we recycle, reuse, glean, build and save. Our lives are about having fun without negatively impacting on the world. The European peasant lifestyle of working hard and eating well, with our addition of fun and laughter, is a closer image.